Ubuntu Edge: Crowdfunding the F1 of Smartphones & an Inside Look at the Software Company's First Hardware Design

Earlier this year, popular Linux-based operating system Ubuntu announced their mobile OS, leading to speculation about a forthcoming foray into hardware. Last week saw the launch of an ambitious crowdfunding campaign for the very same: Canonical, the company behind the OS, is seeking a whopping $32 million to introduce a "low-volume, high-technology platform," The new smartphone is expressly designed for "enthusiasts and mobile computing professionals"—Ubuntu draws an analogy to Formula 1 racing, in which performance-oriented R&D "accelerates the adoption of new technologies and drives them down into the mainstream."

To that end, the first generation of the Ubuntu Edge—available only via presale on IndieGogo—features a clever dual-boot system, such that the device runs Ubuntu mobile OS and Android simultaneously. Moreover, since the Edge runs a full version of Ubuntu desktop OS, it can also serve as a full-fledged PC when connected to an external monitor. Thus, the smartphone also represents "the future of converged computing," in which a single piece of hardware serves as the brain behind a suite of applications: mobile, desktop and potentially anything in between.

Of course, the rectangular black slab itself has duly impressive specs, with a 4.5-inch, 1280×720 sapphire glass screen, plus 4GB of RAM and a massive 128GB hard drive, as well as Dual LTE, Bluetooth, front- and rear-cameras—in short, the works. Designed in-house at Ubuntu, industrial designer Chee Wong has posted a first look at the "materials, stories and process [behind] the development of the Ubuntu Edge."

Suru explorations

Suru explorations

The Edge design team reportedly extrapolated the hardware design from Suru, the visual design language of Ubuntu mobile's core utility apps: "We started off by pulling the key elements of the Suru theme, and expanded on that, in order to explore the transition from a digital user experience, to a physical one." If it's not immediately apparent in between the vibrant gradients of the former and the rectilinear device, Wong notes, via e-mail, that "the Ubuntu Edge came to light much later than the Suru theme, which is essentially the Ubuntu branding. What we did is to simply using it as a guide towards the same philosophy and what we believe in."It's certainly an essential practice (and a growing trend) to ensure [that] manufacturers offer a complete and coherent experience. The Canonical design team (UI, UX, ID, brand, research) is a big, open team which collaborates effectively and ensures everyone is aware and understands each others' project and progress.

Regarding the design process, Wong notes that they combined both traditional and contemporary prototyping techniques to develop the form factor:

Traditional modelmaking techniques as simple as cutting foam, carving, sanding and playing around still serve a major role of understanding a form in terms of size and relationship to us (in hand in this case). However, 3D printing allows us to speed up the process, not to mention providing flexibility in allowing us to explore more options or design directions.

In the case of Ubuntu Edge, we began with a foam model and sketches. Once we had a rough idea of the overall form and shape, we used CAD to start playing with different designs, forms, rad and the like, and sent them off for printing. While that was happening in the background, we continued the explorations.

Stay tuned to Ubuntu design for more updates on the process behind the Edge and check out the Indiegogo campaign for more info. They'll have to average over $1,000,000 in funding a day—some 1,200+ phones per day at the retail cost of $830—to reach their goal by August 21, and they're cutting it close at the current rate...

The latest design news, jobs & events. Straight to you every other week.

Formerly an editor and currently a contributor to Core77 (among other publications), Ray relocated from New York City to the Netherlands in September 2015 to pursue a Master’s in Curating & Writing at the Design Academy Eindhoven. Insatiably curious, he brings a broad interest in popular culture, media, and technology — alongside an abiding passion for art, music, and cycling — to his practice as a journalist and critic.

4 Comments

"Moreover, since the Edge runs a full version of Ubuntu desktop OS, it can also serve as a full-fledged PC when connected to an external monitor."
If you have thinclient access at work, you can run Windows applications such as MS Office straight from the Ubuntu desktop, and run it like a native application.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EtNhlVn3ETQ&t=3m4s
When you start up Ubuntu Edge you can choose if you want to use Android or Ubuntu Touch. When you dock the phone to a monitor and a keybord you will be able to run a full desktop environment directly from Android or Ubuntu Touch.

I love how the open source software community declares that all software should be free and open source. Yet, how is anyone supposed to make a living? Now they want to make Hardware... Suddenly it's going to take TONS of munnies. Shouldn't all hardware be free too? Of course, this is coming from Ubuntu, whose data-mining tactics, as I understand it, are on par with Google's. Free and open source indeed. Good luck with that, guys.

Driver's license, credit cards, keys. These are objects all of us carry, yet ironically they are all unique, personalized to us. They all link to our identity. You enter your apartment via a mechanism that prevents others from entering when you're not there. You are allowed to walk out of...

Our friends at frog design recently released a short documentary on Industrial Design in the Modern World, a kind of iterative manifesto (the consultancy's first but certainly not their last), featuring several key players of the design team. We had a chance to catch up with Creative Director Jonas Damon...

In James Cameron's Avatar, the lush moon known as Pandora is covered in a "neural network" of roots, enabling the plants to communicate with each other—the interplant, if you will. But if Pandora's ecology is anything like Earth's, Cameron has got it wrong. Plants on Earth don't communicate via root-to-root...

Far be it for us to conjecture what you did this past weekend, but if it's anywhere along the lines of rappelling down mountain faces, biking across the country or putting out forest fires, the newly released Jet sunglasses from Recon instruments might be for you. Erring on the side...